HS Prannoy fell short, but Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty performed a giant-killing act to keep the Indian flag flying at the BWF World Championships on Friday. Satwik and Chirag became the first Indian men’s doubles pair to move into the semi-finals of the World Championships, thus assuring themselves of a medal. The Indians, ranked No.7 in the world, stunned defending champions and local favourites Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi 24-22, 15- 21, 21-14 in an hour and 15 minutes.
It is India’s second World Championships medal in the doubles event with Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa claiming a bronze way back in 2011 in the women’s doubles. Overall, it’s India’s 13th medal at the showpiece with PV Sindhu winning five, including a gold in 2019, and Saina Nehwal (silver and bronze) claiming two.
Kidambi Srikanth (silver), Lakshya Sen (bronze), B Sai Praneeth (bronze) and Prakash Padukone (bronze) were the other medallists. However, the other Indian men’s doubles pair who had made the quarters, M R Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, saw their dream run end as they lost 8-21, 14-21 to three-time champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan.
Satwik and Chirag will now face the sixth-seeded Malaysian pair of Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik in the semi-finals. The Indian duo had lost to Chia and Wooi Yik in the finals of mixed team event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
“Here we want to finish it on a big note, not just finish in the semi-finals. It will be a revenge match,” Satwik said.
‘Job not finished’
The Indian pair, who recently had won the men’s doubles gold in the Commonwealth Games, aims to finish the tournament on a big note. “It has been a dream for us, starting with the India Open, the Thomas Cup and then the Commonwealth Games gold. As I speak, I am feeling so happy and excited,” Satwik said after their win.
“It is a big win for us. We haven’t played them in a long time. They are the current world champions and we badly wanted to play against them, but we are always up against the top seeds Kevin (Sukamuljo) and (Marcus) Gideon in tournaments.
“We were excited as we wanted to see our level against them and I’m very happy with the way we played. “We haven’t finished the tournament and we want to go all the way, but the Thomas Cup win is up there at the top. If we win it here, it will be at par with the Thomas Cup.”
Talking about their quar ter final win, Satwik said: “In the first game, we got a lead but they got the rhythm back and after that, it was just one point each. From deep inside, we were calm.” Chirag said they were rewarded for being more proactive in the match. “We controlled the shuttle a lot better in third game. In the second game, we knew we were on a good side, but we were a bit complacent.” “But in the first game, we were proactive in our approach, so we started off that way in the third game, taking the shuttle as high as possible and keeping it down, instead of getting into those drive situations with them.”
Prannoy falters
In the men’s singles, Prannoy went down 19-21, 21-6, 21-18 to China’s Zhao Jun Peng. He squandered an opening game advantage and a slender 11-10 lead in the decider to again sign off at the quarters, following his last eight finish in Spain in 2021.
In the deciding game, Prannoy looked erratic but managed to keep himself in contention with a slender one-point advantage at the interval. However, errors crept into his game as Zhao eked out a 15-12 lead before moving to 18-13.
A 43-shot rally ended with Zhao unleashing a smash as the Chinese soon grabbed three match points. Prannoy saved one with a backhand whip, before the Chinese produced another winner to close the match. “It was a good tournament (for me) but would have loved to be on the podium. But some days you have to work harder. “I have been decent last few months with a few quarter finals and semi-finals. But if I have to win tournaments, I have to be one notch better than what I am right now,” he said.
(Written with inputs from PTI)
